Celtic Music Recordings and Collections at the Archives of Traditional Music

Wales / Cornwall / Isle of Man / Brittany

Folk Music of Wales

The traditional music of Wales varies widely in styles and instrumentation. One musical mainstay is choral music, as Wales is famous for their Welsh men's choirs. They also have many traditional Welsh hymns and sacred vocal works. As for folk music, one of the more common types is the love song, with lyrics describing the sorrows of loss to the praises of their loves. The ballad is also a popular style, describing tales of hard labor and everyday life within the text. 

With instrumentation, at the immediate forefront of Welsh instrumental music is the Welsh harp, otherwise known as the triple harp or the telyn deires. A traditional style of Welsh music called "penillion" has a singer accompanied by harp with texts of poetry. The singer and harpist then follow different melodies with stressed syllables of the poem coinciding with accented beats of the harp's melody. Another distinct instrument is the crwth, a type of bowed lyre. Today, crwth is replaced by the fiddle, an integral piece of Welsh folk music. Finally, there is the Welsh bagpipe and the related pibgorn, a hornpipe instrument similar to the chanter (the recorder/horn piece of the bagpipe where the melody is played) on a bagpipe without the bag. 

These are, of course, some of the more notable or historic instruments of Welsh music. Today, you can see a large variety of instruments used in traditional Welsh folk music, many of which are typically seen in other countries and regions in the Celtic Fringe. (ex. percussion, guitar, flute, etc.)

Click on the passages below to hear some of our holdings

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Example 1: 71-221-C -- Traditional Welsh songs (side B) - performed by Meredydd Evans along with choral, harp, and orchestral accompaniment, 1960

Example 2: 73-101.0073-C -- Welsh songs (side A) - performed by Thomas L. Thomas (baritone), Enid Simon (harp), and Jacob Hanneman (piano), [date unknown]

Example 3: 89-078-C -- You can tell the world about this (side B) - 

This recording features a wide collection of folk music from around the world. Of particular interest is the Welsh hymn found in timestamp: [19:18- 22:57] - "O Fryniau Caersalem" - performed by Fedwarawd Wilkes-Barre (Wilkes-Barre Quartet) with organ, recorded 1920; published 1985

Folk Music of Cornwall

Cornwall's traditional folk music can be considered somewhat of a melting pot of styles. With their geographic location and similar Celtic roots, some of their music was influenced in part by Welsh and Breton settlers. With their proximity to the English, they also garnered English folk influences, particularly from West Country tin miners from the areas of Somerset and Devon. This created music known as "stannard song", a usually upbeat style of music with optimistic reflections of the mining lifestyle. Being surrounded by the sea, maritime music also held a big influence on Cornish music. 

Today you can find several genres of Cornish folk music, including Traditional (songs telling Cornish stories, history, and culture), Ceilidh music (a lively type of folk music often played at parties and social gatherings), Brass Band music. (originally created for entertainment at public events like parades and festivals, which today perform at a variety of events with marches and fanfares), and Contemporary folk music (blending traditional styles with modern musical influences and electric instruments). 

Cornish music uses a wide variety of instruments, however, they share many similarities with their other Celtic cousins. A few of the traditional instruments used include the tin whistle, the fiddle, the melodeon, and the squeezebox (a smaller type of accordion popular in English folk music similar to the concertina). This is of course a small listing in a large variety, so one can also expect to see other instruments traditionally used in what is considered "Celtic music" like guitars, drums, flutes, etc. 

Click on the passage below to hear a selection from our holdings

Note: the following example requires an IU login to listen

Example 1: 72-190-C -- Songs of Christmas (side A) - 

Of particular interest in this collection of Christmas carols is a Cornish piece found in timestamp: [0:00- 2:52] - "Cornish wassail song" - performed by various musicians, 1961

Folk Music of the Isle of Man

The Isle of Man is a small island in the midst of the British Isles, surrounded by Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales. As such, all of these cultures have had more or less influence on Manx music. The Manx language itself is in ways similar to Irish and Scottish Gaelic, as it comes from the same branch of the Celtic languages called Giodelic. Much of traditional Manx music was passed down through oral tradition, and it was not until the late 19th and into the 20th centuries that collections began being published to preserve Manx folk songs. (Click here to view scans of one of these early collections by William Henry Gill and Dr. John Clague.) These songs follow similar styles heard in Irish and Scottish like dances, carvals (carols), and ballads, with textual themes of love, religion, history, folklore, and more. 

Instrumentation is fairly similar to what is seen in other Celtic folk traditions, so you can expect to see instruments such as fiddles, flutes, tin whistles, drums, pipes, etc. 

To learn more about Manx traditional folk music, check out Manx History, created by Culture Vannin (formerly Manx Heritage Foundation).

Click on the passage below to hear a selection from our holdings

Note: the following example requires an IU login to listen

Example 1: 71-070-C -- Scéalamhráin Cheilteacha (side B) - 

This collection, created by the Folk Music Society of Ireland, includes a piece from the Isle of Man sung with the original Manx text at the timestamp [3:03-8:33] - "Mylecharaine" - Manx narrative song sung by native musician, 1985 (creation date: 1945)

Folk Music of Brittany

Breton folk music is unique from its Celtic cousins in that they don't reside within the British Isles. The region of Brittany lies on the northwestern edge of France on the coast. Though their music shares influence from French styles and sometimes language, Breton folk music proudly boasts Celtic traditions and culture that set them apart. Folk music is an important expression of Breton culture with styles varying upon region. Language and dialect also vary, with the Southeastern region of Upper Brittany speaking predominately French as well as a French/Celtic dialect called "Gallo" whereas the Northwestern region of Lower Brittany still has a large concentration of Breton speakers. 

In the music itself, you will find varying styles of song and dance music. Songs in particular are quite interesting, as "traditional" Breton song styles are unaccompanied in unison, solo ballads, or in response-style dance music. Some of the song styles include Kan Ha Diskan, a type of response-style singing found in Breton-speaking areas of west central Brittany, Gwertz, a repertoire of ballads in Breton telling tales of historical, legendary, or dramatic events, and Son, which are all songs other than the gwerz like love songs, drinking songs, counting songs, and other dancing songs. 

Some of the traditional instruments of Breton folk music include the biniou koz/biniou bihan (terms meaning old bagpipe/little bagpipe), the Biniou bras (the Scottish bagpipe), the bombarde (an oboe-like instrument), the venuze (a one-drone bagpipe), the treujeun gaol (modern clarinets or a clarinet-like instrument with 4-5 or sometimes 13 keys), the violon (fiddle), the accordion, the telemn (Celtic harp) and the Vielle à roue (hurdy-gurdy). 

Click on the passages below to hear some of our holdings

Note: the following examples require an IU login to listen

Example 1: 71-070-C -- Songs and dances of Brittany (side A) - "Shepherd's song," "Three dances: Bal, ballad and gavotte," "Mountain dance," "Simple dance, stick dance, eight future dance," "Francois is at his mill," "Song of the reapers," "Three airs: folk tune, gavotte and ball," "The banners of Lampaul," and "Three airs: march, round dance, passepied," performed by Jacques Connan and family, 1966 

Example 2: 71-070-C -- Songs and dances of Brittany (side B) - "Three dances: frontal dance, gavotte, dance song gavotte," "The young sailor's song," "The lost bride," "The little rooster," "The drinker's wife," "I'll build a house," "Louisette and Pierrot," "The pork sausage," and "The plucking of the wren," performed by Jacques Connan and family, 1966 

Example 3: 78-076-C -- Pays de Loudeac (side A) - Vocal and instrumental music from Pays de Loudeac, France (Brittany), 1976